If I didn’t know better, I’d have mistaken it for one of Hayden Fry’s press conferences three days before a Holiday Bowl game.

Kanaskie had already drawn a few laughs and inflated the ego of Chuck Schoffner, sports editor of the Associated Press in Des Moines.

And he had already made me feel good on this cold, drab day after a question I asked about his Drake basketball team maybe being a factor in the Missouri Valley Conference race.

I certainly haven’t attended all of Kanaskie’s press conferences since he became Drake’s coach in 1996, but this had to be among his most entertaining.

And it was good to see him having some fun in the Knapp Center. He deserves it.

He also deserves to have a strong team in 2002-2003. Include me among those who want Kanaskie—a good man--and his players to finally have a winning season.

You know and I know they’ve had it up to their eyeballs being asked about losing season after losing season, the 23 straight losses to Iowa, the tough academic standards at Drake.

But his response to the mental toughness part had to wait.

"Chuck, you look 10 years younger,’’ Kanaskie said. "I didn’t even recognize you. I thought you were somebody from the Times-Delphic.’’

[Other reporters laugh].

News people normally don’t like to be the center of attention at a coach’s press conference, but Schoffner handled it well.

I asked him afterward how old he is.

"Older than Kanaskie, younger than you—but not by much,’’ he said.

I later asked Kanaskie about the Valley race.

"We try not to look at preseason magazines or predictions because most of it is done by sportswriters and the electronic media—and they don’t know what they’re talking about,’’ Kanaskie said.

"That’s different as far as the Internet, Ron. Those Internet people know what’s going on….’’

[Kanaskie has been around the block enough times to obviously know that comment would wind up very high in this Internet column].

Still later, Rick Brown of the Register asked Kanaskie if a winning record was a team goal of the Bulldogs.

"We haven’t set our team goals yet,’’ Kanaskie said. "We need to work as hard as we can to be the best team we can possibly be. That’s what our goal is – not to win ‘X’

amount of games. We will set those goals as the season gets closer.

"If you ever cover Drake basketball again, you can ask me that again, Rick.’’

Even though there were no laughs from the reporters after that comment, my guess is that Kanaskie meant it to be funny—but also to send a message.

It was his way of jabbing the local paper. For years, there has been the feeling at Drake—not just by Kanaskie, but by many other coaches and athletic department officials--that the Register short-changes the Bulldogs horribly in its coverage of collegiate athletics.

I certainly heard it when I worked there, and tried my best to do all I could to give Drake equal treatment with Iowa and Iowa State. Brown and the others who work there now are hearing the same complaint.

Still, Drake is always the first team the paper quits covering on the road, the first team to wind up on Page 6 of the Sunday paper.

Once the Bulldogs are out of the Valley race, a "special correspondent’’ covers the away-from-home games. Don’t be fooled by that "special correspondent’’ stuff. The "special correspondent’’ is usually Drake sports information director Mike Mahon, who wishes he didn’t have to be quite so special.

Meanwhile, the road games played by Iowa State and Iowa are covered by Register staff writers. And the chances of those game stories being on Page 1 are much better than being on Page 6.

By the way, Brown—presently the Register’s No. 1 basketball writer--does not make the paper’s game coverage assignments. If he were given the Drake assignment, he would take it. So don’t blame him.

The sports editor makes those decisions.

I said, "You had a couple of jobs before you came here, and you were very successful. You inherited a very difficult situation here, and a lot of people realize that. How did you keep from losing your patience, or have you kept your patience?

Kanaskie’s answer:

"As I tell the TV crew that shoots my TV show, ‘No over-the-shoulder shots.’ That’s because, when I came here, I had a full head of hair, Ron. It has not been easy. I can’t tell you how difficult it’s been at times. But (I work) with good people. Our players are really good people. I think unfairly they have been portrayed as poor students, or not achieving what some people think they should academically.

"There’s a big difference in lacking a 2.0 (grade-point average) and being a bad person. There’s a huge difference in that. We see guys work hard in practice every day and have the resilience to bounce back when things don’t go their way.

"It’s the players….. We think this freshman class is at another level, both athletically and academically. Josh Robinson is a great example. He had the opportunity to go to the University of Pennsylvania and he had the opportunity to go to Memphis University. But he chose Drake because it has great academics and quality basketball. The other freshmen are just like him. That’s what’s kept us going.

"The toughest part, Ron, is the comparison of our program to Drake programs in the past. That’s totally unfair. The football program, when they keep statistics, refers to it as the non-scholarship era. We’re in the 2.0 era. You cannot compare our program to programs before the 2.0 rule was put into effect because those teams wouldn’t have had a lot of those players….’’

Obviously, that was another message.

By the way, Kanaskie hasn’t lost all of his hair. Just some of it.

A 20-win season would go a long way toward him not losing anymore.